Notable Women of 2011

From the Saturday Monitor:

Rebecca Kadaga: The Ugandan lawyer and politician is on this list for being the first female to be elected Speaker in the history of Parliament in Uganda.

Susan Muwonge: commonly known as Super Lady won the National Rally Championship (NRC) beating Ponsiano Lwakataka the Independence Rally.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: In 2011, Sirleaf stood out for being awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakel Karman of Yemen.

Justice Julia Sebutinde: is remembered as the tough judge who made corrupt police officere shake in their shoes in the famous Commission of inquiry into corruption in the Uganda Police

Just to name a few.

Review: Pope Joan (Lawrence Durrell)

This work by Lawrence Durrell is a 1954 translation of the Greek Papissa Joanna of Emmannuel Royidis which was written in 1886.  As such, the review is really covering the original work and is not a critique of Durrell's translation of the original work.

Joanna’s story begins with her humble antecedents – the daughter of an unnamed English monk (who is never named) and a buxom Saxon goose girl called Judith. Her father-monk is inspired to leave England and preach in the land of the great Charles (whom I am presuming to be Charlemagne), which he did as a wandering missionary for eight years until his “every hope of paternity” was cruelly removed. Whether through miraculously conception or rape, Joanna was born sometime in the year 818. And eight years later, following the passing of Joanna’s mother and a curious incident with a bare-breasted Abbess, Joanna’s father once more embarks on the missionary trail, this time with Joanna to accompany him.

You can read more of my review at Medievalists.net

Saudi Women in Elections 2015

From the Washington Post:

Women in Saudi Arabia will not need a male guardian’s approval to run or vote in municipal elections in 2015, when women will also run for office for the first time, a Saudi official said Wednesday.

The change signifies a step forward in easing the kingdom’s restrictions against women, but it falls far short of what some Saudi reformers are calling for.

Shura Council member Fahad al-Anzi was quoted in the state-run al-Watan newspaper saying that approval for women to run and vote came from the guardian of Islam’s holiest sites, the Saudi king, and therefore women will not need a male guardian’s approval. The country’s Shura Council is an all-male consultative body with no legislative powers.

Panda is UK "Woman" of the Year

From Jezebel:

In a move that is sure to go down in adorable bear history, the BBC has named a female panda named Sweetie one of its female Faces of the Year.

2011 was either lacking severely in girlchievements or a banner year for lady pandas. So what was Sweetie's glorious achievement that elevated her, a bear, over that of all female humans who did stuff?

She got off of an airplane in Scotland, to great fanfare. That's it. Hooray for Sweetie the panda, woman face of the year.

Not only is a bear deemed to appropriately fit the "woman" category, the rest of the list will leave people who were hoping for a progressive set of female movers and shakers disappointed.

Women on Wall Street

From Bloomberg:

Siebert wasn't the first woman to rise above gender discrimination in the world of finance. One of the earliest documented female investors in the U.S. was Abigail Adams, who ignored her husband John's instructions to invest in land while he was stationed overseas, and instead made a much larger return investing in U.S. government bonds. Contemporary accounts describe Abigail's foray into the investing world as the one source of contention in the couple's otherwise happy marriage, despite her success.

There are also abundant examples of women who went out of their way to de-emphasize or even hide their gender to foster their careers in finance. Among them were the first women to own a Wall Street brokerage, sisters Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee Claflin, who had custom-made business dresses designed to hide their femininity and blend in with their male colleagues. Even so, the New York Times headline that announced the firm's opening in 1870 read "Wall Street Aroused," and the story's reporter concluded that "A short, speedy winding up of the firm of Woodhull, Claflin & Co. is predicted."

Canada's Bomb Girls

From the Toronto Sun:

This hardly is explosive news, but Meg Tilly didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about where bombs were made before she was cast in Bomb Girls.

“I didn’t even know there were bomb factories, I just thought they magically appeared,” said Tilly, referring to the World War II era in which Bomb Girls is set.

“And I wasn’t aware of how many people I know whose parents, or aunts, or grandparents worked in them.”

In Canada the dangerous art of making of bombs fell largely to women, with so many men fighting overseas. The personal and professional politics of this together-by-necessity work environment is at the heart of Bomb Girls, a six-part Canadian mini-series that debuts Wednesday, Jan. 4 on Global.

Egypt: Virginity Tests Illegal

From the Guardian:

Forced "virginity tests" on female detainees were ruled illegal in Egypt on Tuesday, after a court ordered an end to the practice.

Hundreds of activists were in the Cairo courtroom to hear the judge, Aly Fekry, say the army could not use the test on women held in military prisons in a case filed by Samira Ibrahim, one of seven women subjected to the test after being arrested in Tahrir Square during a protest on 9 March.

Fekry, head of the Cairo administrative court, decreed that what happened to Ibrahim and six other detainees was illegal and any similar occurrence in the future would also be considered illegal.

The court is expected to issue a further injunction against such tests and decree that the test was completely illegal, opening the door for financial compensation.

After the verdict Ibrahim, 25, posted on Twitter: "Thank you to the people, thank you to Tahrir Square that taught me to challenge, thank you to the revolution that taught me perseverance."

The 25-year-old marketing manager, who said she faced death threats for bringing the case, told CNN: "Justice has been served today.

"These tests are a crime and also do not comply with the constitution, which states equality between men and women. I will not give up my rights as a woman or a human being."

The Great Female Pilot – Pancho Barnes

From Top Secret Writers:

Barnstormer, world speed record holder, crash survivor, stunt pilot, founder of a pilot union, and owner of a fly-in ranch depicted in The Right Stuff and frequented by friends like Chuck Yeager, Buzz Aldrin, and Jimmy Doolittle.

Pancho Barnes was an unconventional character that had a big effect on aviation and aviators during some of the most dynamic years in aviation history.

Though living through pain, prejudice, and the Great Depression, she maintained a love of life.

Born Florence Leontine Lowe, Panch was renowned as a unique, dynamic, humorous, talented, and generous individual.

Pancho was a very respected pilot in the Golden Age of Flight: an era that began with Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 flight across the Atlantic Ocean and ended twenty years later in Long Beach Harbor with Howard Hughes’ giant flying boat, the “Spruce Goose,” pulling itself out of the water.

Was Dickens Anti-Women?

From the Mail Online:

For all his genius, the writer was an abusive husband who seduced a woman 26 years his junior and virtually abandoned his children.

Yet, as we near his bicentenary, we should remember that this was a man tortured by the memory of poverty as a child, thin-skinned, cruel to his wife (Catherine Hogarth), dismissive of his children, a slave to overwork and, ultimately, victim of an early death, worn out not least in the effort to support himself, his estranged wife, and his mistress (Ellen Ternan)and her family.

His is a very Victorian story of social mobility, sexual hypocrisy, and tortured genius.

Of Interest:

Dickens in Swizterland

Dickens in America